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Q1. In Exodus 20:5, it states, "you shall not bow down to them nor
serve them. For I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth
generations of those who hate Me".

On the other hand in Ezekiel 18:20, it states, "The soul who sins
shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the
father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous
shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon
himself".

There appears to be a contradiction between the two verses quoted
above.

1. It seems that God is not fair in imposing judgement on the children
for the iniquities of their forefathers. Each generation should only
be held responsible for their own sins. [ref. Exodus 20:5].

2. Looking at the man's present sin condition, it is undoubted that we
have inherited Adam's sin. But this would contradict Ezekiel 18:20
since "the son shall not bear the guilt of the father".

How do we reconcile the two verses. Appreciate your comments on the
matter.

A1. The Scriptures must be interpreted in the context of the
revelation at Moses' time. Note the progression from Exodus 20:5 to
Ezekiel 18:20. The first important thing to note is that the language
of the Old Testament has a permissive tense - allow the iniquity to be
visited, etc. - and there are many places in the OT where the language
seems to blame God as the source of evil (the devil was not exposed
yet in the NT sense). The second is the fact that as revelation
progresses and human society is ready to progress from the law
(schoolmaster) to grace (sonship in Christ), there is also a
progressive revelation of God the Father which culminate in the full
revelation in Christ. Even David had some understanding of the
revelation of grace when he declared Blessed are those whose
iniquities are (Romans 4:7,8). The third is that the passing on of
iniquities is more consequences (which is true in that one generation
does affect the next and so forth) rather than judgment. It can be
seen as a positive aspect in that consequences cannot go beyond the
fourth generation plus if the generation within the 2nd to 4th
repents, the consequences can be removed based on grace.

Q2. Regarding your third point that the iniquities are more of
consequences. Does it mean that  there is no such thing as
generational curses?  In deliverance ministry, it is often required of
the person seeking deliverance to repent/confess against generational
curses of their forefathers. Is this step necessary since each
generation is reponsible for his own sin?

A2: In regard to your question, 2 Corinthians 5:17 - ALL things have
passed away - is the answer to all the wrong theology of generational
curses. We receive in accordance to what we believe. If people believe
that it still applies to them, it will be so to them and they have to
live at that level seeking to still overcome those curses. It is
something akin to the question of eating idol food, keeping the
religious Sabbath law, eating of vegetables (Romans 14:1-12; 1
Corinthians 8:1-13); those whose conscience and faith who still
believes it will affect them, will be affected but those whose faith
and revelation know that an idol is nothing and that Christ has
redeemed us from all these ceremonial laws, will be free from them.

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